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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29228583">All her lovely companions are faded and gone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidofthekat/pseuds/kidofthekat'>kidofthekat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Grimm still exist, Implied/Referenced Suicide, No Beta We Die Like Red Heads In RWBY, Ruby is depressed, Salem has been defeated, Yang is dead previous to the story, probably</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:40:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29228583</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidofthekat/pseuds/kidofthekat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang's death in the final battle against Salem hurts the remaining members of Team RWBY more than one of them can handle.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blake Belladonna &amp; Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose &amp; Summer Rose, Ruby Rose &amp; Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose &amp; Yang Xiao Long</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>All her lovely companions are faded and gone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>TW: suicide and death</p><p>I think there's like one cuss</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Thomas Moore -</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Tis the last rose of Summer,</em>
  <em><br/>
   Left blooming alone;<br/>
All her lovely companions<br/>
   Are faded and gone;<br/>
No flower of her kindred,<br/>
   No rose-bud is nigh,<br/>
To reflect back her blushes<br/>
  Or give sigh for sigh!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one,</em>
  <em><br/>
   To pine on the stem;<br/>
Since the lovely are sleeping,<br/>
   Go sleep thou with them.<br/>
Thus kindly I scatter<br/>
   Thy leaves o’er the bed<br/>
Where thy mates of the garden<br/>
   Lie scentless and dead.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>So soon may I follow,</em>
  <em><br/>
   When friendships decay,<br/>
And from Love’s shining circle<br/>
   The gems drop away!<br/>
When true hearts lie withered,<br/>
   And fond ones are flown,<br/>
Oh! who would inhabit<br/>
   This bleak world alone?</em>
</p><p>If you asked every Rose that ever existed one thing they know to be true, it is that they will always be alone.</p><p>                Which was why Ruby didn’t cry when Salem cut her sister down. Blake did. So did Weiss. There was no one else left to care.</p><p>                Ruby didn’t mourn her sister team when they died. When their souls faded from existence. She lost everyone she knew when they first met. And mourned them the second she realised she cared.</p><p>                She should have seen this coming. She should have known that she had used up her time. Maybe, maybe she had hoped team RWBY would be a constant. Maybe she thought family could be an exception. Though she only needed to look at her mother’s grave to know such an exception didn’t exist. That she was forever cursed to never be happy with others. For what was a rose but the one destined to inhabit this bleak world alone?</p><p>                Despite her best efforts she somehow managed to make friends. One’s that cared. A friend to past the lonely day’s reading. And a friend to pass the lonely nights talking. If there was one good thing that came from Yang’s death, brothers none of it was good, but, if there was one, it was that at last she could see clearly, the haze of denial lifted. Because if even her own flesh and blood couldn’t escape, then what hope did Weiss and Blake have?</p><p>                Unless she left. But they would still care, wouldn’t they? Summer had left, but her only friends who had lived longer than twenty years were the rest of team STRQ. Maybe that’s why Ruby had hoped. An out of context version of happiness, something to cling too in the dark, a rope, tied to nothing. She understood, and had for a too many years, that the only reason the TRQ of STRQ had survived was because Summer died before they could.</p><p>                Grimm attack. Apparently.</p><p>                That was bull.</p><p>                Summer Rose was the best huntress of her time. A meager beowolf couldn’t kill her.</p><p>                Ruby was always one to aim to follow in her Summer’s footsteps, perhaps she would one more time. Make her mother proud one last time.</p><p>                “Ruby?” It was Blake, her voice perpetually hoarse since Yang’s death, sobbing oneself to sleep each night and spending the next day trying to hide it from the two people who knew you best did that. “We’re going to her grave now, do… do you want to come?”</p><p>                She nodded, one more team trip. All of them together one last time.</p><p>                Ruby walked somewhat behind her partner and friend. Watching idly as they whispered to each other, probably about her. She wasn’t blind. Their worry was clear, well placed. Their speculations incorrect.</p><p>                They reached the grave.</p><p>                Next to Tai’s.</p><p>                Then Summer’s.</p><p>                Then Qrow’s.</p><p>                Then Raven’s.</p><p>                Then Pyrrha’s.</p><p>                Then Jaune’s.</p><p>                Then Nora’s.</p><p>                Then Ren’s.</p><p>                Then, Ozma’s. It seems his immortality only lasted until his purpose had been fulfilled.</p><p>                And then, Ruby, watching all her friends, dead and alive, from afar.</p><p>                “Where thy mates of the garden</p><p>                Lie scentless and dead.”</p><p>                She felt Blake and Weiss’ questioning gazes on her back as she turned away, disappearing into the forest.</p><p>                In her mind, her lovely companions are faded and gone, they weren’t to return.</p><p>                She was still at home when Weiss and Blake came back. Why? She didn’t know.</p><p>                No matter, she promised herself she would be gone by dawn.</p><p>                They ate dinner together that night. Ruby had insisted. Most likely the most passionate she had been in a long time.</p><p>                She wanted one more dinner together. One last time just being with her family.</p><p>                The meal tasted grey, or what she imagined the colour to taste of.</p><p>                She said as much. Weiss was offended but smiled. Maybe she thought Ruby was returning to ‘normal’.</p><p>                The sun was setting.</p><p>                The sun had set.</p><p>                She was staring at the array of weapons in her room. Too much choice. She needed something that would help her kill some Grimm, but not let her be dangerous enough to return home. Her mother had chosen a silver dagger. She chose a golden sickle.</p><p>                Ruby left her cloak by a sleeping Weiss. Since she couldn’t say goodbye. She felt bare without it. Not that it mattered. All that mattered was that she was leaving because she was tired.</p><p>                “Since the lovely are sleeping</p><p>                Go sleep with them.”</p><p>                There were more Grimm than she thought there would be. Especially as Salem was gone. They were less violent than before. Easy prey. Each one died faster than the previous. Two more dead before the first could dissipate.</p><p>                The sickle smoothly sliced the limbs. She pushed her aura into them, shaped as a blade just as Ren had taught her, to make the kill. She was almost out of aura. The technique was a dangerous one, only to be used by master aura manipulators. Ruby was not one. She didn’t care. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had was leaving because she was tired.</p><p>                No aura left.</p><p>                Not enough faith to use her silver eyes.</p><p>                Just her and the gold sickle.</p><p>                “Ruby!” She turned to the voice. It was Weiss. The cloak on her back. She looked good. Blake was next to her. They should run, she was doing this so they could survive. They needed to leave. They should go.</p><p>                “Behind you, Ruby it’s behind you!” Ruby thought curiously about how the cries of her friends could hurt her heart more than the claw going through it.</p><p>The blood seeped into her clothes, staining the already dark colours. It felt sticky. It didn’t look anything like roses, she didn’t know what her mother had been thinking. It didn’t matter though. All that mattered was that she had was leaving because she was tired.</p><p>                She smiled at Blake and Weiss, the only two left, the two who were going to survive. Weiss had tears streaming down her cheeks. Ruby thought she might be screaming but she couldn’t hear it, only see her open mouth and the horror in Blake’s eyes and the way her ears twitched and flattened.</p><p>                And the way they both clutched the cloak, like she and Yang had done when they were left alone, abandoned,</p><p>for their own good.</p><p>Soon she would follow her mother,</p><p>                When friendships decay,</p><p>                And from love’s shining circle</p><p>                The gems drop</p><p>                “Thus kindly I scatter.”</p><p>                Away.</p>
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